releases

March 20 (UPI) — The White House released a new legislative framework for artificial intelligence creating a federal policy to prevent states from making their own laws about it.

“The Administration recognizes that some Americans feel uncertain about how this transformative technology will affect issues they care about, like their children’s wellbeing or their monthly electricity bill,” a White House press release said. “These issues, along with other emerging AI policy considerations, require strong federal leadership to ensure the public’s trust in how AI is developed and used in their daily lives.”

The framework lists six areas where legislation is needed: protecting children and empowering parents, “to give parents tools such as account controls to protect their children’s privacy and manage their device use”; safeguarding and strengthening American communities, “through economic growth and energy dominance”; respecting intellectual property rights and supporting creators, by “enabling AI to thrive while ensuring creativity continues propelling our country’s greatness”; preventing censorship and protecting free speech, “AI cannot become a vehicle for government to dictate right and wrong-think”; enabling innovation and ensuring American AI dominance, by “calling on Congress to take steps to remove outdated or unnecessary barriers to innovation”; and educating Americans and developing an AI-ready workforce, by “encouraging Congress to further workforce development and skills training programs.”

President Donald Trump‘s administration has embraced AI. But in December, he signed an executive order for a single national regulatory standard on the industry.

He posted on Truth Social in early December: “There must be only One Rulebook if we are going to continue to lead in AI. We are beating ALL COUNTRIES at this point in the race, but that won’t last long if we are going to have 50 States, many of them bad actors, involved in RULES and the APPROVAL PROCESS.”

He then described the consequences if states all create laws.

“THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT ABOUT THIS! AI WILL BE DESTROYED IN ITS INFANCY! I will be doing a ONE RULE Executive Order this week,” he wrote. “You can’t expect a company to get 50 Approvals every time they want to do something. THAT WILL NEVER WORK!”

The press release said the administration wants to work with Congress to create a bill in the coming months that follows the framework.

Lawmakers in New York, California and other states have worked to enact their own state-level regulations, which AI industry leaders oppose.

They argue that a “patchwork” of laws would stifle innovation and give other competitors like China an advantage.

Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, in a Friday press release, said, ″The White House’s national AI legislative framework will unleash American ingenuity to win the global AI race, delivering breakthroughs that create jobs, lower costs, and improve lives for Americans across the country.”

It does so while reining in challenges, he added.

“At the same time, it tackles real concerns head-on — protecting our children online, shielding families from higher energy costs, respecting creators’ rights, and supporting American workers — so every citizen can trust and benefit from this incredible technology,” Kratsios said.

LA28 revealed the schedule Monday for an extended Olympic soccer tournament that will begin four days before the opening ceremony.

The soccer competition begins July 10 with four men’s group stage games across New York, Columbus, Nashville and St. Louis. The women’s tournament begins July 11 with games in all six of the preliminary round sites, including San José and San Diego.

The soccer competition, which will feature 12 women’s teams and eight men’s teams for the first time, has the longest competition window of any sport in Olympic history because the International Olympic Committee Executive Board wanted to give each team two extra rest days throughout the tournament.

Each team will have two days of rest between group stage games and three days between the final group game and the quaterfinal rounds. The men will begin their knockout round games on July 20 while the women start quarterfinal play on July 21, including one women’s quarterfinal match at the Rose Bowl.

The iconic stadium in Pasadena will host only five matches for the Olympics, including a men’s and women’s semifinal July 24 and the men’s gold medal match on July 28 and the women’s on July 29.

San Diego’s SnapDragon Stadium will have the most matches of any site with 11. In addition to three days of women’s group stage games, the home of San Diego State football, San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC will host a women’s quarterfinal July 21, men’s and women’s semifinals July 24 and both bronze medal matches.

With the coast-to-coast soccer tournament shaping up, LA28 announced additional ticket opportunities for the competition, allowing fans interested in attending soccer matches to buy up to 12 soccer tickets in addition to the current 12-ticket maximum for all other Olympic events. The 12-ticket maximum for Olympic events includes the opening and closing ceremonies on July 14 and 30, respectively, which each have a four-ticket limit.

Ticket registration for the first ticket drop ends Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. PDT with the first tickets going on sale to locals in Southern California and Oklahoma beginning April 2. The first general ticket drop begins April 9. Fans who are randomly selected to participate in the first ticket drop will be notified via email between March 31 and April 7 with information and their assigned timeslot to purchase tickets.

More than 5 million fans have already registered for Olympic tickets, LA28 said, with Paralympic tickets going on sale in 2027. The organizing committee expects 14 million tickets to be available for the Games, which could eclipse the total ticket sales record set by Paris in 2024.

March 11 (UPI) — The British Cabinet Office has released files from its investigation into former ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson on Wednesday as it digs into his ties to deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

The first batch of documents revealed that Mandelson may have been briefed on classified information before being given security clearance when he was appointed as ambassador. They also show that he requested a large government payout when he was terminated last year.

Mandelson was arrested and then released last month in London over suspicion of misconduct in public office. The allegation stems from emails released in the Epstein files in which Mandelson appears to be sharing market-sensitive confidential information with Epstein.

Documents released by the Cabinet Office share some details after his appointment as ambassador in December 2024. Within days of his being appointed, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office offered to brief Mandelson on highly classified information while he was still being vetted.

Emails about the briefing were shared Dec. 23, 2024, about three days after the announcement of Mandelson’s appointment. It was not until Jan. 30, 2025, that Mandelson received an email confirming that he had cleared the vetting process.

It was in this email that he received a formal offer of employment.

When Mandelson was terminated from his position in September, he requested to be paid the full amount on his contract — more than 500,000 euros or $578,625. Instead, he was paid 75,000 euros or $86,793.75 to terminate the contract.

“As the documents show regarding his severance payment, Peter Mandelson initially requested a sum that was substantially larger than the final payment, not just two or even three times, but more than six times the final amount,” said Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister at the Cabinet office.

“Despite the fact that he was withdrawn from Washington because he had lost the confidence of the prime minister, the government obviously found that to be inappropriate and unacceptable.”